5 Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents

The time has come, you’ve decided homeschool your children. Right now it feels like one of the biggest decisions of your life. Perhaps you are having issues with your children’s school and the feather that broke the camel’s back has fallen so you’ve pulled them out. Maybe you’ve been dreaming of homeschooling since they were tiny but the first days of kindergarten are looming and you are realizing you’ve got to commit to create to this crazy idea. Maybe you’ve been at this homeschooling thing for years and you are feeling tired and weary and wondering if you should continue on.

No matter your life circumstances of the moment know WHY you are homeschooling will help you make the big and the small decisions about your family’s homeschool. Let’s talk about some common reasons to homeschool.

You are concerned about the environment of the schools. Perhaps your child was a victim of a bully. Maybe they have learned some inappropriate things from friends. Perhaps you are worried about some of the violence we often see displayed on the nightly news. What ever it is about schools that have you concerned you feel like you can provide a better learning environment at home.

You’d like to provide your children with an education centered on a religious world view. It is no secret that God has been removed from the public school classroom. Even if you are blessed to live in a community with many Christian teachers these teachers are expressly forbidden from teaching from a place of faith.

Dissatisfaction with academic instruction. In the home setting any parent can structure their child’s education to the individual child’s learning style and interests. Chances are the outcome will be a better educated child.

Child has special needs. Whether those needs be academic, medical, behavioral, some combination, or something completely different… parents have the unique ability to structure the child’s environment for greatest success.

There are so many other reasons to homeschool that I have not listed here. These four comprise just the top 4 that are often listed by many homeschooling researchers. They are enough to get you thinking about this super important subject.

If your family is like mine then your “WHY” will probably encompass a few of the above or perhaps even all of them. When I feel the need to revisit our why I will sit down with a paper and pencil and a prayer to God to remind me of His calling. Then I just start writing a long, often discombobulated, crazy list.

Here are some questions to ask yourself while you are making your list….

What are our our family’s spiritual goals?

Why does homeschooling provide the better environment or way of life for our family?

What life skills do we want our kids to have?

What non-academic goals do we have for our family?

What are our our family’s educational goals? What do we want learn? Why?

If you are a veteran homeschooling family you may also want to make a list of the good things that have come about since you started homeschooling.

Now post that list somewhere where you will see it often. Or… if you are bit more structured you can turn your list into some statement…type it off, print it out, and maybe even frame it.

Here is an example of one great “Why” statement.

Why we homeschool… We homeschool in order to create an environment where we can develop a strong relationship with our Lord God and with each other. We homeschool in order to learn through a Christian worldview. We homeschool in order to become life long learners. We homeschool in order to develop positive character traits like diligence and perseverance int he face of academic and life struggles. We homeschool to help us discover God’s plan for all of our lives.

When creating your ‘Why’ statement be purposeful and prayerful. Revisit it from time to time as your WHY may grow or change and that is OK. Use your WHY statement in moments when you need support and encouragement.

The members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew are participating in a 5 day series… Tips for homeschool parents. I encourage you to visit their blogs and read up on their best tips too!

Comments

Our why is part of the reason why I seldom think of alternative education. Every day isn’t easy, and I do become physically tired, but the homeschooling lifestyle is our way. I agree that this should be one of the first steps in homeschooling.

Our why is all four of what you listed. When our daughter was first born they had already earmarked her for special ed by 6 months. I thought this was a rush to judgement and it really rubbed me the wrong way. 11 years later that was definitely the wrong call.